FluX Connecting to 3DS Max

In this tutorial on FXGear FluX, I will show how to connect 3DS Max and FluX using BIN-export/import.

I will prepare a simple scene of rotating water wheel.

Open FluX and create a new project. Now we have a typical folder set.

We will use the folder Import for any objects from other softwares. Save the FluX scene and close, we will need it a bit later.

Now open 3DS Max. Make sure that you have BIN mesh exporter\importer (can be downloaded from NextLimit site).

Prepare your scene (create an object with or without animation).

In my case I did rotating water wheel. Scale it down as you see it in a viewport.

When you are done with the object run BIN mesh exporter:

Set the export for “Selected Objects only”, select your “Active Time Segment”, set “File Frame Format” to “name.#.ext” with “Padding” of 4 and choose your Import folder in prepared folder set in FluX. Then Export.

Your files (wheel.0000.bin) should have following extension: wheel.0000.0000.bin

Now we are ready to import these files to FluX:

Run FluX. Open up your prepared scene. Create “Cache” node from File, select “Read Files” in Cache “Option”. Set “Interpolation” to “On”. Now in a “FileName” field select your exported files. Create a MeshShape node and connect it with Cache node.

Click Refresh button on a Playback panel to see the object in a viewport.

Match your Container using GlobalNode.

Now we can build the rest node tree for the simulation. This is a typical set up like in theBreakingDam tutorial.

The only difference is that in this case we will use *.bin extension for our particles. So the file name in a Cache node which is saving our particles on a hard drive will be thefollowing:

Run 3DS Max. Create PRTLoader. Load all your particle sequences from each core if you used multithreading:

Make sure, that “Override Density” button is ON (FluX does not records density information with BIN files, so we need to make the “Override Density” button turned on).

So now you’re ready. I used Voxel Rendering and I used my water wheel as a matte object.

You can also use Frost plugin from ThinkBox software for particles meshing (http://www.thinkboxsoftware.com/frost-downloads). And finally, you can create mesh from particles inside FluX (see Particle Surfacing tutorial), but export the mesh not in *.tri extension but in *.bin extension, so then you will have a possibility to use BIN mesh importer from NextLimit and load the mesh inside 3DS Max.